Impulsivity as a risk factor for eating disorder behavior: Assessment implications with adolescents

Abstract

These results provide moderate support for the idea that impulsivity serves as a risk factor for the onset of eating disorder behavior. However, this is only true when more objective behavioral measures were utilized.

Relationships between temperament and eating behaviours in young children

“…Martin et al, 2000;Wonderlich et al, 2004) and that children"s early eating behaviours have been shown to be relatively stable (Ashcroft, Semmler, Carnell, van Jaarsveld & Wardle, 2008), identifying associations between eating behaviours and temperamental traits at an early age could potentially be useful for clinicians and healthcare professionals working with children with feeding problems and with those who are, or are at risk of, overweight.…”

“…In addition, childhood temperament (specifically higher levels of negative emotionality) has been related to the development of later eating concerns (Martin et al, 2000). Finally, in adults, temperamental traits such as impulsivity have been linked with disordered eating attitudes and behaviours (e.g., Wonderlich, Connolly, & Stice, 2004). Thus, there is evidence to suggest that an individual"s temperament may be associated with later eating-related problems.…”

Aggressiveness, Anger and Eating Disorders: A Review

“…Even in non-clinical samples, impulsivity correlates with some aspects of eating behaviours, in particular eating disinhibition [103] , and seems to be a risk factor for ED behaviours [104] . A recent study on a large non-selected adolescent population sample found an association between bulimic behaviours and discontrol behaviours (bullying, truancy, excessive drinking, sexual dishinibition) [105] .…”

Bulimia nervosa symptoms in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD

“…[7][8][9] Impulsivity has been shown to predict onset of BN symptoms 9 months later among adolescent girls in a community sample. 10 Individuals with BN, like youth with ADHD-C, 11 display inhibitory control deficits on a neuropsychological stop-signal reaction time task. 12 Despite this theoretical rationale, overall, in the ADHD literature, little is known about children's prospective risk for female-relevant psychopathology such as BN in adolescence, 13 and the BN literature needs more studies testing a developmental framework that incorporates childhood precursors of this disorder.…”